Rahm thinking about Blago's family

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Monday it would be “callous” for him not to sympathize with Rod Blagojevich’s family as the former Illinois governor heads to prison this week for a 14-year sentence.

Emanuel said his “thoughts are with the family” as it goes through “this very ripping” tragedy, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Blagojevich on Thursday is expected on Thursday to arrive at Englewood, a low-security facility in Littleton, Colo., located 15 miles southwest of Denver, to start serving his 14-year sentence for corruption.

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“While obviously the judge and the jury have made their decision, anybody if they haven’t seen a family torn would be callous” not to care about Blagojevich’s wife Patti and their two daughters, Emanuel said.

“So, my thoughts are with the rest of the Blagojevich family. Everybody else has made their judgment on the public side. [But] every one of these public sides has a private side. … My thoughts are right now with Patti and the kids because this is very ripping. … There’s a family here. There are children here whose father is about to go to jail. So, my thoughts are with them. My thoughts are with the family and the private side,” Emanuel, who was speaking at a news conference on local parks programs, said according to the Sun-Times.

Emanuel added, “It doesn’t mean I don’t have opinion or a judgment about something else that everybody else has, one way or another, expressed. I’m not going to add any insight to it,” according to CBS Chicago.

During Blagojevich’s second trial, the mayor was called as a defense witness to testify about a recorded conversation where Emanuel asked the former governor to appoint someone to take his place in Congress. Emanuel was on the stand for only a couple of minutes to discuss the conversation where he asked Blagojevich to appoint then-Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool “in my interest of, uh, you know, having somebody there you know that doesn’t want to make it a lifetime commitment.”

Blagojevich is set to make his final public statement just after 5 p.m. local time on Wednesday.